Well, It All Started When
by Master Zakath
Summary: List of must-read books inside. Incredibly random. Basically, my friends and I were having a conversation one day at lunch when my friend said Rand instead of Garion and I just thought, What if...
1. Default Chapter

This is not part of the story, just that list of books I promised: any and all David Eddings books, Dune, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, The Fifth Ring, possibly more to come.

Chapter 1

Well, you see, it all started when Rand broke Doroon's arm. It was just another fine spring day at Faldor's Farm, and the children (Garion, Doroon, Rundorig, and Zubrette) were playing as they usually did. Here's the story.

How it was supposed to happen: Zubrette, being the kind of girl that she is, urges Doroon into the highest branches of one of the various trees on the farm. Doroon, being the idiot little boy, quite naturally falls out of the tree and breaks his arm. Zubrette runs away for fear of getting into trouble while Rundorig just stands there, completely and utterly clueless. Garion, being the only truly intelligent one in the group, makes the decisions. He binds Doroon's arm as best he can, then gets Rundorig to help him take Doroon to Garion's Aunt Pol in the kitchen where she tends to all the injuries. Aunt Pol, of course, uses her usual methods to get Doroon to drink some medicine, binds the arm, and then everything is all better after she yells at Zubrette. With this quite normal situation, things remain unchanged and everything happens in the order and way that it should. At least, that's what was _supposed_ to happen, but the actuality of it was very different.

How it _actually_ happened: As we all know, things don't always go quite as we planned them, and that goes for everyone, whether you're a small little farm boy or an ancient voice of prophecy that can speak inside the mind of a boy-turned-savior and can manipulate the actions of multiple generations.

So, getting back to our story, it really was just another, normal spring day at the farm. Zubrette and her companions were playing down by the small pond when suddenly Zubrette decided that she wanted to see one of the boys climb to the top of one of the trees. Just as she was about to say something, Garion turned from his pebble-throwing.

"Guys, I'm really thirsty. I'm going to go get something to drink from the kitchen."

Zubrette scowled slightly as he turned his back to them and began to walk towards the farmhouse. Doroon continued his endless chatter, even though no one even bothered to listen to him, and Rundorig just stood there staring stupidly at the water. After a few seconds Zubrette finally tore her eyes away from Garion's retreating form and looked speculatively at the two boys still with her. Then she smiled, having made her decision.

"Oh, Doroon…" and she proceeded to coax him into climbing the tree.

Just as Doroon was getting ready to climb the tree and Garion was coming out of the kitchen door, there was a disturbance in the air near the tree, and out came none other than Rand al' Thor, who had apparently fallen into a vortex and been thrown through time and space to this very spot at this crucial moment.

Poor Doroon didn't see it coming, and as Rand fell on top of him without warning, the others could do nothing but stare incredulously. Everyone, that is, except for Garion who, after a moment of stunned silence during which Rand got to his feet, broke into a run towards his injured friend.

Doroon's arm was obviously broken, there was no denying that. Garion turned on Rand.

"What do you think you're doing!" he shouted.

Rand just stood there looking quite sheepish. "Well, uh… I just, umm…I didn't mean to…"

"You idiot! You broke his arm! That's supposed to be _my_ job, not yours, do you understand? Either that tree right there, or me! It wasn't your job, and now you've gone and ruined a perfectly good day!"

By this time, Zubrette had, of course, run away to hide somewhere, and Rundorig was still just being dumb and clueless. Garion stooped to help his friend up and he and Rundorig walked him to the kitchen, leaving Rand standing there in utter confusion. Now, there was a chance here for a more normal kind of outcome, but of course they had to tell Aunt Pol what had really happened. She just nodded, showing an incredible amount of restraint on her sometimes horrible temper (you all remember the little episode at Riva that actually happens after all this in the real book by Eddings, right?).

The whole time Aunt Pol was tending to Doroon in the kitchen, Rand just stood there by the tree, studying his surroundings and wondering why he was here and what in the hell happened to his throne room. Suddenly he heard some weird music begin. As he turned to see, Aunt Pol came bursting out of the kitchen door like a bat out of hell riding on her favorite broomstick ('Cause she actually has one. Yeah, right). Rand turned and began to run like he'd never run before, and let's face it, who wouldn't?

Aunt Pol rode with fury, and Rand thought she had green skin, probably due to the green make-up she was wearing. Even more frightening was the song that she was singing. At least, it was frightening until he caught some of the words. "…Popular. I'll help you be popular, and with an assist from to be who you'll be instead of dreary who you were…" That's right, people. Aunt Pol is one of the biggest fans of the new musical _Wicked_. (She saw it on Broadway opening night).

All of a sudden, Rand stumbled into another vortex. _Just great,_ he thought. _Oh, well. At least wherever I'm going it'll probably be better than here._ How very wrong he was.


	2. Chapter 2

Aunt Pol came storming back to the farm with an extremely angry expression on her face; though besides her blazing eyes and the thin line that was her mouth, she looked quite normal (no one on the farm saw any sign of a broomstick or green makeup, nor did they hear a single note of the song; however, they did know that she went chasing after Rand). Seeing her face, the children decided wisely that now was not really a very good time to be around her, so they left to go to one of their usual hangouts.

Aunt Pol's foul mood persisted for much of that day, and no one on the farm even dared to say anything about or do anything to suggest that things weren't abosulutely normal, though the talk at dinner that evening was a bit subdued. The next day, however, dawned clear and bright, and things went back to normal at Faldor's farm. They would have stayed that way, too, if not for what happened a few weeks later. It's a shame, really. Someone just really wants to complicate things for poor Garion. (Now I wonder who that could possibly be…)

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"You'd best be a bit more careful, Sparhawk, or I'm going to break your nose!"

"You already did that once before. Wasn't that enough?" Sparhawk laughed.

"Maybe," Kalten replied, hefting his practice sword as he got ready to strike once more.

Sparhawk grinned and prepared himself for the blow. He'd been going easy, but then again so had Kalten. This was a practice round, after all, but perhaps it was time to take it up a notch, just for fun…

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ehlana sighed as she looked out the window down at Sparhawk and Kalten. "Why must they insist on doing that?" she wondered aloud, not really expecting an answer.

"They're men, your Majesty," Alean said. "You must allow them to play with their little toys every now and then, or else they can become quite disgruntled."

"I suppose you're right," Ehlana said as she turned back to her work. She sighed again as she began to read another proposal from the merchants in Cimurra.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Rand was falling through the air. The only thing he had time see was the darkened night sky before he landed on top of a sand dune and began to roll down the side of it. He stood up and began to brush himself off. There was a strange smell on the air, like that of a strong spice, though he had never before smelled anything quite like it.

He looked at his surroundings and saw desert all around him, mile after mile, for as far as the eye could see, broken here and there only by a ridge or two and some rocks. The stars overhead were strange, so he was unable to get his bearings and a sense of direction. On top of that, there was no sign anywhere of any oases, nor was there even the slightest hint of a water source, and the night air was warm and very dry.

_Just great,_ he thought to himself. _I would have been better off in that other place._ Then he remembered Aunt Pol. "Well, at least I'm free from that scary witch-woman"he said, which was just about the only pleasant thought he could come up with about being stuck in this horrible place (it's a good thing that there was no one from Bel/Mal around to hear him say that).

Rand sighed and picked a direction at random, hoping that if he walked far enough he might stumble onto some type of civilization. Stumble he did, indeed.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Cheer up, Pippin," Merry said. "It's bound to get better sooner or later."

"Just go away and leave me alone," Pippin said as he got up and strode back to the bar to get another beer.

"Jeez. What's wrong with him this time?" Sam asked from across the table.

"Who knows?" replied Merry. "He gets himself into so much trouble that you never can tell what he's gone and gotten himself into at any one point in time."

"Seems to me that you could be describing two people I know," Frodo said, grinning.

"Shut up there, mister high-and-mighty Baggins. Just because you don't know how to have fun doesn't mean that you can sit there and lecture-"

"Oh, fun, is it? Going around and getting yourselves into all sorts of trouble, eh? I guess I just didn't know that that's what it was called."

"Hey! We don't get into trouble _all_ the time, and half the times we are in trouble it's just because some idiot doesn't understand the definition of the word 'joke.' And anyway, the whole point behind o-"

"Quiet," Sam said. At first Merry and Frodo thought that Pippin was returning, but then they saw that there was a crowd gathered around the door.

"What's going on?" Frodo asked.

"I don't know. Old man Toole came in and started talking real fast. He seems on the verge of hysterics."

"Well, do you think maybe we should go see what it is, then?" Merry said.

"I think we should wait a bit. That crowd is pretty thick over there, and poor Toole seems a little overwhelmed right now, but perhaps if we keep quiet we may be able to hear something."

The hobbits sat there with their drinks, not saying much, and hardly noticing Pippin when he sat back down next to Merry. Merry, whispering softly, told Pippin what was going on. As they sat there, Pippin soon lost interest in his own foul mood and was overcome with curiosity. All four of them decided that it must be something fairly serious because the crowd would have dispersed a long time ago if it was nothing that bad.

Finally, the crowd began to follow old Toole outside, and our four favorite hobbits decided to do the same, hoping to discover what was afoot. They worked their way through to the front of the crowd so they could listen to the conversation between Toole and the barkeep. From what they could gather, Toole had been playing catch with some of his grandchildren when a very peculiar thing happened.

"The ball just disappeared, you say?"

"Yes. Just right vanished there in the middle of the air. Never saw anything like it in my life," Toole said. He stopped suddenly in the middle of a small field just outside the village.

"I don't see anything," the barkeep said.

"It's right there, just a few feet in front of you," Toole replied. Then they all saw it. Right there, in the middle of the field, there was a faint shimmer in the air. It was transparent, but it looked as if the air at that spot was somehow distorted. The barkeep went over to it and touched it. The crowd watched in amazement as his entire arm vanished. A startled barman quickly withdrew his arm.

"Well, I never…" he said, looking down at his hand in alarm. Then he turned and faced the gathered throng. "I think we should keep people away from this until we can figure out what exactly it is." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Well, duh," Pippin said. "You'd have to be an idiot not to see that answer coming."

"Be quiet," Merry said.

The crowd began to disperse at that point and everyone went on their way, either home or back to the Green Dragon.

"I think we should go," Frodo said. The other agreed. As they walked away Frodo looked over his shoulder to look at the thing again. He felt a strange pull coming from it, almost as if it were calling to him.


End file.
